33 Tasks You Should Outsource to a Virtual Assistant

The Virtual Assistant has become the secret weapon of many businesses. Unseen yet in constant perpetual motion, the Virtual Assistant has slowly been receiving recognition for helping businesses navigate through economic turbulence. By outsourcing services to virtual assistants, businesses are able to reduce costs yet increase productivity. How many other business development strategies can do that?

If you’re planning to adapt the same strategy to your business, here are 33 tasks you should outsource to a Virtual Assistant:

I. Administrative – If checking your e-mail is the first thing you do in the morning, you’re not alone. Many other entrepreneurs and company officers begin their day by communing with their inbox. And it won’t be the last time either. Statistically, people check their inbox 3 to 5 times a day.

Going through the inbox is not easy. You’ll have to filter through Spam and suspicious content. The same goes for calendar management, appointment setting and file management. These are classified as “non-essential” tasks but are otherwise essential for proper organization.

Can you imagine being in the middle of an important meeting and your phone starts to ring incessantly? Even if it’s on silent mode, it will be a source of distraction.

Outsourcing these services to your Virtual Assistant will open up more time for you to focus on the core functions of your business. It will allow you get more things done and remain productive.

The Virtual Assistant will also make sure all your important records, documents and papers are in order and available whenever you need them. If you’re in real estate or in an industry which requires a large data base, this can be regularly updated by the Virtual Assistant.

II. Back Office Support – To make an analogy, back office support are like the roots of the tree. You don’t see them but the people behind back office allow the business to run operations smoothly. They make sure everything is working like clock-work so the front office people can manage their responsibilities without issue.

Accounting is an integral part of back office. The number one reason why companies fail is because they did not keep track of their money flows. Your Virtual Assistant can generate the necessary reports to make sure you are on top of your company’s financial position.

IT and Human Resources are also critical. IT ensures your networks are protected with its integrity secured while HR keeps your manpower requirements covered.

10. Accounting11. Information Technology12. Human Resources

III. Marketing – Without marketing, your sales team will have no direction. This is a commonly misunderstood by entrepreneurs; marketing and sales are different responsibilities.

Marketing paves the way so the sales team can have its targets identified and become more precise with their strategies. But marketing work is extensive and time-consuming.

It also requires purposeful and strategic thinking. You must have a plan before undertaking any marketing program.

Online marketing is the most efficient way of attracting business. It uses techniques and processes that allow you to qualify markets. This allows you to pinpoint distribution of content instead of mindless distribution such as flyers inside a mall.

You can find virtual assistants who are experienced in several forms of online marketing.

IV. Sales – Sales is the life blood of every organization. Without sales, how would you be able to support day-to-day operations?

But sales is not for everyone. There are people who are born to sell; they have the attitude and determination to be forward thinkers. They know how to approach prospects when it comes to selling.

There are many virtual assistants in the industry who have come from diverse selling backgrounds. From cosmetics, fashion apparel, mobile phone subscriptions, insurance to real estate; they’ve run the gamut in different industries.

Sales require frenetic pace. It is a function where success is based on probabilities. The more calls you make, the higher the chances of closing a sale.

17. Outbound Telemarketing18. Surveys19. Follow Ups

V. Technical – Entrepreneurs are not only hard workers. They are also brilliant. But as smart as they are, it is impossible for anyone to know everything. And even if you did know everything, you won’t have enough time in the day to do it.

Virtual assistants today come in many skills. Name the task and there is certainly a Virtual Assistant who can handle it. Technical skills need higher competency for it to get done right.

Some tasks such as transcription, translation, market research, medical billing and coding are highly sensitive and must be precise. Even if you know these disciplines, it would be best to hire a Virtual Assistant who can devote exclusive time and focus on them.

VI. Customer Service – Times have changed. Given the significance of the Internet to business and the influence of social media, competition has become tighter.

Profitability isn’t just about who has the highest number of sales. The Internet has made almost everyone on this planet accessible; even your own customers. If you don’t treat them well, your competitor could steal them from your business.

Businesses now spend equal time between market creation and market retention. Customer service’s job is to help you retain markets by immediately attending to issues and arriving at resolutions within an appreciable time frame.

Virtual assistants can make your customer service more proactive and dynamic. They can reach out to your clients and inform them of the status of their concerns before they can follow up.

There are other tasks you can outsource to your Virtual Assistant. All you need to do is make a review of your daily responsibilities and rank them in order of priority. As the business owner, you should focus on activities that directly relate to revenue generation. The rest, you should just outsource to a Virtual Assistant. It will pay off hugely from the start.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Smart Virtual Assistant was created to assist small and big business outsource many of their back end, repetitive computer based tasks, thus allowing our clients to focus on their core, dollar productive activities.
We have the flexibility of offering VA’s from as little as just 10 hours per week, right up to 40 hours. We can also offer home based staff as well as staff working from our Philippines based office.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss your needs and we can tailor a solution right for you.